Starting a New Year in Schoology
Issue
Schoology provides a number of ways for teachers to save and copy material year after year. The best method for you depends on the way you build and store content in your Schoology account. If you're a teacher in a school or organization with System Administrators, you may have a different set of best practices.
Resolution
Find your courses
You can find your courses from the See All link the Courses dropdown from the top menu. To view courses in grading periods that have already ended, click on the Archived area.
Note: Schoology does not delete content from archived courses. You may access Archived courses any time.
Save your course to Resources
If your course has course folders, you can save all of your folders and materials in the course to Resources.
Navigate to the course profile of the course you'd like to save to Resources. Click on the Options button. Select the option to Save Course to Resources. Select the Resource Collection in which you'd like to house your course material. If you haven't created a collection, you can add the course to your Home collection. Select a folder within the collection to which you'd like to save your course material (optional). Click Submit to complete.
Note: Depending on the amount of materials in the course, it may take some time to save the course to Resources. Only course materials will be saved to resources. Other course items, such as members, profile picture, and events will not save to resources.
New courses
Depending on your organization's provisioning method, you may be able to create a new course or your courses may be created for you.
If you'd like to create a new section, or start a new section with fresh material, follow these steps:
Click on the Courses area on the top menu. Click See All. To create an entirely new course, click on the Create Course button. To add a new section to an existing course, click on the Add Section button next to the course name under which you'd like to add a section. We recommend using the Add Section option if the subject matter of the course remains the same in the new school year. Enter the name of the section. Click Create to complete.
To add saved course content to the new section, you can add content from your Resources or copy from archived courses to the new course.
Import from Resources
To import content from Resources, navigate to the new course section you've created.
Click on the Add Materials button. Select the option to Import from Resources. Select the collection in which you'd saved your course. Click on the folder in which the course content had been saved. The name of the folder should be the name of the course section you saved to resources. Select all items by checking the box next to the Title heading. If you prefer to import only some material, select the checkboxes next to the items you'd like included in the new course section. Click Import to complete.
Note: Depending on the amount of content you're importing to the course, the import process may take some time. If you see material outside of the folders in the saved course in Resources, these items will be imported to the Materials Index in the new course section.
Add material to a new course
If you prefer to add specific material to the new course, you can add material from Resources to a course, or copy material from a previous course.
To add material to a course from Resources, follow these steps:
Click on the Resources area on the top menu. Select from Personal, Public, or Group Resources. Navigate to the collection of Resources with the material you'd like to add to the new course. Click on the gear to the right of the material template. Select the option to Add to Course. Select the course(s) to which you'd like to add the material template. Click Add to complete.
To copy material from a previous course to a new course, follow these steps:
Click on the Courses area on the top menu. Click See All. Click on the course with the material you'd like to copy. Click on the gear to the right of the material. Select the option to Copy to Courses. Select the course(s) to which you'd like to copy the material. Click Copy to complete.
Create a duplicate course
If you are teaching the same material in the new school year, you can also create a copy of your current course. To copy a course section, follow these steps:
Select the Course dropdown menu and click See All. Select the Gear Icon and click Copy Section. Complete the Copy Course Section form. Click Create.
Note: Schoology automatically changes the Section Name, but you can modify it by clicking on the Section Name.
Copy grade settings to the new course
When you create a new course in Schoology, the new course may not have the same grading categories and grading scales as previous courses. To copy grade settings, follow these steps:
Navigate to the Course Profile of your previous course. Select Gradebook in the left menu of the Course Profile. Select Grade Setup directly underneath Gradebook. Click Copy Settings in the upper right corner. Choose to copy categories, grading scales, rubrics, or all of the options. Select the course to which you'd like to copy the grade settings. Click Submit to complete.
Extend the life of the course
If you'd like to keep the same course material and roster of students for another school term, you can extend the life of the course by adding a grading period. You'll notice a yellow message near the top of your Schoology account when a grading period associated with a course is nearing its end-date. After a grading period ends, the course is placed in the Archived area of your Course Listing. If your course is not associated with any grading periods, you do not have to add grading periods to extend the course into a new school year.
To add a new grading period to a course, follow these steps:
Navigate to the Course Profile of your previous course. Select Gradebook in the left menu of the Course Profile. Select Grade Setup directly underneath Gradebook. Click on the Edit button to the right of Grading Periods & Final Weights. Enter a name for the new grading period. Select a start-date and end-date. Click Save to complete.
Note: Depending on the settings in place at your school or organization, this feature may not be available to you. The System Administrator at your school or organization can create and add grading periods to the course for you.